Michael Bay directing Lobo almost makes it feel as though DC is really grasping at straws at this point. In regard to being the answer to the Deadpool franchise it’s enough to make a person shake their head and wonder why they’re bothering when they should be focusing on their running trainwreck of movies that have been piling up. They’ve been lagging so far behind the MCU for a while that catching up seems like it’s going to take a monumental effort that would be best served by bringing in someone that has known what it takes to make a blockbuster film. Except there’s one problem with that, as much as Bay knows how to make a blockbuster, he also knows how to milk it until people just start losing interest. He knows how to tear apart a franchise that people loved and give them something that’s initially pretty cool but eventually becomes something that people will say “what now?” to instead “that looks awesome!”. In other words his vision kind of disregards the source material at the risk of alienating the viewers.
For instance it already sounds like Lobo is being billed out as a seven-foot tall, blue-skinned alien bounty hunter/mercenary. There’s not much wrong with that except for the fact that Lobo has been appearing a WHITE-skinned alien bounty hunter/mercenary for quite a while now. They already made a huge mistake, or many of them, with the Justice League, Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman, and by trying to downplay Wonder Woman, but bringing in Lobo sounds like a good idea, IF they do it just to spice up the DCEU in the movies and don’t bother with competing with Deadpool. There are similarities between the two to be sure. They’re both mercenaries and they both have insanely potent healing factors. Lobo has been able to regenerate from a puddle of blood before, that’s how good his is. And he’s been able to go toe to toe with Superman in the past, which is how tough he is.
Deadpool, for all his wild antics and over the top abilities as a merc, is just a loudmouth that has a healing factor and nothing else. He’s not super-powered, he doesn’t shoot lasers out of his eyes or teleport in his current incarnation, and he hasn’t managed to access his strange grab bag that he’s able to use in the comics and cartoons. They’ve kept him grounded in some sense of reality so far. But Lobo, as you can see, is a guy that’s about a hundred steps away from reality as the DCEU seems to enjoy. He’s crass, he smokes, he drinks, he swears, you would think that he and Deadpool might get along, but he’s also highly antisocial, so maybe not.
What he’s not is an answer to DC’s prayers when it comes to matching Deadpool. even if Deadpool 2 tanks the idea that the DCEU will be bringing in someone to try and top Deadpool means they’ve already acceded the loss. At this point they’re just trying a little too hard.
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